Book Section
Ben Woodard
The Statistical Cloud of Race
Lancelot Hogben’s Anti-Eugenics between Populations and Organisms
This essay examines the political complexities of competing modelling schemes by examining the work of the biologist Lancelot Hogben. Hogben engaged with biophilosophical and biopolitical predicaments: personal bias, political ideology, and the dangers of misapplying statistical concepts outside of their theoretical remit. Hogben’s anti-eugenicist stance, along with his zoological and statistical knowledge, despite being partially forgotten by history, has become even more relevant today.
Keywords: eugenics; biological models; statistics; biopolitics; Lancelot Hogben; history of biology; genetics
| Title |
The Statistical Cloud of Race
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| Subtitle |
Lancelot Hogben’s Anti-Eugenics between Populations and Organisms
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| Author(s) |
Ben Woodard
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| Identifier | |
| Description |
This essay examines the political complexities of competing modelling schemes by examining the work of the biologist Lancelot Hogben. Hogben engaged with biophilosophical and biopolitical predicaments: personal bias, political ideology, and the dangers of misapplying statistical concepts outside of their theoretical remit. Hogben’s anti-eugenicist stance, along with his zoological and statistical knowledge, despite being partially forgotten by history, has become even more relevant today.
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| Is Part Of | |
| Place |
Berlin
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| Publisher |
ICI Berlin Press
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| Date |
May 20, 2025
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| Subject |
eugenics
biological models
statistics
biopolitics
Lancelot Hogben
history of biology
genetics
|
| Rights |
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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| Language |
en-GB
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| page start |
155
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| page end |
179
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| Source |
Breaking and Making Models, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey, Marietta Kesting, and Claudia Peppel, Cultural Inquiry, 33 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 155–79
|
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Cite as:
Ben Woodard, ‘The Statistical Cloud of Race: Lancelot Hogben’s Anti-Eugenics between Populations and Organisms’, in Breaking and Making Models, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey, Marietta Kesting, and Claudia Peppel, Cultural Inquiry, 33 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 155-79 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-33_06>